Thursday, July 14, 2016

Crabbing, Sacagawea, and the Truffle Shuffle

It was a picture perfect morning. The front porch of our
cabin overlooks a river lined with trees and lush greenery. I’m glad we stayed
in a cabin instead of a tent last night, because we had a full day planned and
wanted to get on the road in a timely manner. Of course when we realized there
was Wi-Fi at the lodge on our way out, we stopped in our tracks, sat on the porch,
and hovered over our devices catching up on texts and emails. Meanwhile the
kids wrote postcards to their friends.

After driving along the pristine Oregon coastline we stopped
at the Tillamook cheese factory for some ice cream. I love that there are so
many random but fun things to do and see that keep popping up along our route. It
just happened to be on the side of the road, so we pulled in. After a little
more driving we reached Kelley’s Brighton Marina for some crabbing. We were
obviously novices, but it was so fun! We liked it much better than fishing (one,
because we actually caught things - and two, we could chat it up as loud as we
wanted with each other and with our fellow crabbers on the pier without having
to worry about scaring the catch away). Afterward the kids and I played a game
of giant Jenga while we were waiting for our food. Turns out the food never
came, even after placing the order twice! So we bailed. We had too much to do
to sit around waiting for crabs to cook.

Further still up the coastline we stopped at Cannon beach,
where infamous scenes from Goonies were filmed. It was there that Clara FINALLY
found sand dollars! That was the number one thing on her bucket list for this
trip, and although we’ve been up and down the entire coast we haven’t seen a
single one until today. It’s a good thing too, because tomorrow we start
heading inland and the chance of finding sand dollars is nada. We also spotted
jellyfish, which we haven’t seen on this trip either. After beachcombing
Cannon’s picture perfect shores we ducked into Mo’s for my favorite meal of the
trip so far. Their chowder actually lived up to the hype.

Up the coast we drove again, through the charming town of
Seaside, followed by a visit to Fort Clatsop and a history lesson on Lewis and
Clark. I learned the Pacific Northwestern pronunciation of Sacagawea, which was
quite different than I’d heard before. I had to ask the costumed ranger wearing
a coon-skin cap to say it a few times before I realized who she was talking
about! Around here it’s SacAAAgaweya (mutter the last couple syllables fast and
under your breath like they don’t really exist), not SacagawEEya.

Next stop was the town of Astoria, right on the border of
Oregon and Washington. We couldn’t resist driving past the Goonies houses
(Mikey’s and Data’s), inconspicuously taking a quick photo from afar, as the
owner who lives in the house does not like tourists. Turns out the house is
actually for sale. I’m not surprised.

Finally we made our way over the bridge into Washington,
where we’re camping tonight. Unlike two nights ago, this campground is
practically vacant. The showers and toilets work, and the views are absolutely
stunning. I can’t believe such beautiful places really exist!

The last thing we did before bed was snuggle up in our tent
and watch Goonies with the kids before they fell asleep. It was a perfect
ending to a perfect day.